newbie pcitures. mirror, dog, & flowerz.

here are some newbie pictures i took. nothing too crazy here, just messing around with my camera.
i might get some books and take a class on photography next semester to help better myself.
any comments, criticism, and questions are all welcome.

out of curiosity, was the canon rebel bought just to mess around with family photo's? now dont get me wrong as trying to be mean, ive just never heard of anyone using a $900 camera to play around with.

now:
2: the flower has great color to it, but the background image looks very flat.

3: could be a interesting subject, but we can see you quite clearly.

4: a possible beautiful shot of a beautiful dog, but i belive its cropped a little to tightly and try playing around with your angles, I think this would look nice if you were slightly higher up.

If your interested in it, practice practice practice. its the best way to learn.

^ actually, it's my Dad's camera. we bought it off my cousin a few months back for $590 used with lens + all accessories. my Dad doesn't have the time to be taking pictures as a hobby due to the fact he works all day (and i guess he just lost interest). so, i might buy the camera off my Dad for my own use (yeah, i HAVE to buy it off him to keep it/use it). plus, i do need a camera to take pictures of all the stuff i sell on eBay. so why not have a great camera as my first? hah.

thanks for the constructive criticism/critiquing. i really appreciate it; it encourages me to do better.